


When everything comes crashing down

by moogsthewriter



Series: When everything comes crashing down [1]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, but with a happy (short) ending, unapologetic angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 21:25:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3870292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moogsthewriter/pseuds/moogsthewriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was bad enough when Donnie was the one in danger of falling to the ocean; now it's his baby brother, and the thought of him falling is completely unacceptable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When everything comes crashing down

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I watch _Fast 6_ and "Battle for New York" and listen to a bunch of angsty soundtrack music in the course of a week or so. Unapologetically an excuse to write some angst. But there's a happy (albeit brief) ending. Promise. (And a companion fic coming eventually, too.)
> 
> I own nothing. Title from "The Fall" by Imagine Dragons

_There's nothing like dangling from a flying Kraang ship twenty stories off the ground to get the heart pounding_ , Donnie thinks as the ship lurches again, slamming him into the hard metal siding. It knocks the air out of his lungs, but it also knocks the Kraang droid that was firing at him out from its perch; it tumbles from the ship and disappears into the foggy night with a shriek.

Donnie sighs with relief and turns his attention back to the reason he's dangling on the outside of a Kraang ship in the first place: the control panel. In a classic case of _Kraang logic makes NO SCIENTIFIC SENSE,_ this particular ship (conveniently fueled with enough mutagen to transform all of Manhattan and most of the outer boroughs) has its course pre-programmed, and the override controls are embedded halfway down the outer hull.

So far, Donnie's been able to keep the ship from crashing or releasing its mutagen onto the city – and has in fact managed to steer the ship out over the ocean at this point – but if he doesn't make some headway into hacking into it soon, his luck won't hold out for long.

"Heads up, Dee!"

Donnie grabs the rope anchoring him to the ship (well, anchoring him to Raph, who is safely inside the ship) and swings instinctively to the left in time to avoid being brained by the torso of a Kraang droid; a robotic arm flies past a moment later. He looks up to see Mikey grinning down at him, one hand with a white-knuckle grip on a crack in the hull and the other hanging onto the weighted end of his kusarigama; the blade is hooked onto the edge of the doorway they'd blasted open earlier. "It's a little breezy out here!" he quips.

"Mikey! Get inside the ship!" Donnie shouts.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Mikey replies, shifting his grip so both hands are on his kusarigama chain as he pulls himself back to the door.

Then the ship lurches again. Donnie's heart leaps into his throat at the sound of Mikey's startled scream as the movement knocks the kusarigama loose and sends his brother rolling and sliding over the edge of the ship.

Donnie doesn't allow his brain to think of all the possible outcomes like it usually does. Instead, he acts on pure instinct and springs off the hull, relying on the rope around his waist to send him arcing up just in time to snag part of the chain of Mikey's kusarigama as it slithers past him. He gasps when the chain snaps taut below him and the rope tying him to Raph snaps tight above him, knocking the air out of his lungs, but Donnie doesn't even _dream_ of letting go in that moment.

Ten feet down, Mikey's eyes are as wide and round as Donnie has ever seen them. The dark and the fog obscure the distance to the ocean below, but Donnie is well aware of just how high up they are.

It was bad enough when Donnie was the one in danger of falling to the ocean; now it's his baby brother, and the thought of Mikey falling is completely unacceptable.

"Hang on, Mikey, I've got you!" he shouts in his firmest tone. "I've got you!"

Mikey gulps and nods and even smiles a little, his eyes still wide but now full of confidence in Donnie's promise. Donnie keeps his gaze locked with Mikey as he feels a tug around his waist, and then another – Raph, and probably Leo, too, pulling them back up toward the ship. Toward safety.

 _We made it,_ Donnie thinks in relief. _We're going to be okay_.

Below him, Mikey's gaze shifts to a spot just over Donnie's left shoulder, and a strange blankness settles on his face.

And then Mikey lets go.

Donnie blinks, and Mikey reaches into his belt with both hands and hurls two handfuls of throwing stars past Donnie's head, twisting his body as he falls to give them extra force.

Donnie blinks, and three Kraang droids, sparkling with electricity as they short out, go tumbling past him, and Mikey has disappeared from sight.

Donnie blinks, and there's nothing below him but swirling fog.

Donnie blinks, and he's back on the ship, and there are arms locked in an iron grip around his chest, and he's fighting with all his might to get back outside because _Mikey's still out there, no, we have to save him, I can still get to him, Mikey, please, no, let me save Mikey, I had him, I HAD him, Mikey, MICHELANGELO–_

Donnie blinks, and his cheek stings from the force of a slap, and the screaming that had been ringing in his ears has suddenly stopped, and his throat hurts, and his eyes burn, and the links of the kusarigama chain are digging into the skin of his hands, and the iron grip Raph had on him has loosened a little from his trembling, and Leo is standing in front of him with wide eyes and tears streaming down his face and one hand still slightly raised.

"I had him, Leo," Donnie croaks, his voice little more than a whisper. "Leo, I _had_ him."

Leo doesn't say anything, but his face crumples, and Raph's grip tightens, and the kusarigama drops to the ground with a rattle, and Donnie closes his eyes against the tremendous wave of grief, keeping the tears back for fear of drowning in them.

-o-

Four days later, when they return after another night of searching the ocean and the beaches only to find Mikey slumped against the wall outside the lair's entrance – shell cracked, ribs broken, shoulder dislocated, still half drowned but _alive_ – Donnie finally breaks and lets the tears fall, holding on as tightly as he dares as Mikey clings to him just as tightly and says, "And I've got _you_."

_End._


End file.
